This book was recommended to me more than once and I've wanted to read it for a long time. I also wanted to look at something with culture and politics at the centre of the story, even if the latter is structured in a way that might seem unfamiliar to readers in the modern day Western world. Although it's a book about a community, it is really the story of one man. The equilibrium of his world is upset by two factors - his own actions and the things going on around him that he has no control over.
Okonkwo is a proud, brave warrior struggling to step out of the shadow cast by his under-achieving father. He runs a tight ship - with several wives and children - and all seems well until he… Read more
As an avid John Le Carre fan, having read the Spy who came in from the Cold, his latest novel The Constant Gardner, jumped off the shelf at me and begged to be bought! Eager to share his brilliance with the rest of the club I was quite pleased with my choice - oh how wrong could I be.... Constant Gardner is based in Africa telling the tale of the local British diplomats. Our unlikely hero, Justin Quayle, has no more interest in British politics than I have and appears to be merely serving out his time, until his wife is murdered. Like all grieving husbands he takes matters into his own hands and launches an investigation which takes him into the murky underground of politics and… Read more
The Body Artist opens with a breakfast scene in a rambling rented house somewhere on the New England coast. We meet Lauren Hartke, the Body Artist of the title, and her husband Rey Robles, a much older, thrice-married film director. Rey says he's taking a drive and he does, all the way to the Manhattan apartment of his first wife. Lauren is left alone, or so she thinks... A lean, sad, beautiful novel, The Body Artist is a meditation on love, time and human perception from one of the great masters of modern storytelling. The Writer
